Good Shepherd Calendars 2014

September marks the beginning of spring and the promise of summer days to come. This year we have used daffodils as the theme for the Room 2 calendars. We looked at a vase of bright yellow daffodils with frilly orange centres and did lots of drawings. Next we made a coloured sketch as our plan. We drew our ideas onto the calendar paper with vivid pen and painted our pictures with yellow, orange, green and blue dye. We hope our families will buy lots of calendars and cards. They make great  Christmas gifts!

God Created - People Make

In Room 2 this week we have been learning to identify living things that God creates and non-living things that people make. We brainstormed ideas about all the things God created and how people use his gifts to make things. For example God created trees and people make houses out of wood.  We found lots of pictures and divided them into groups of things God created and people make. Now we have displayed them in our classroom. We thank God, Te Atua, for all His precious gifts and we promise to take care of everything that he has given us.

"For you love all things that exist,and detest none of the things that you have made..."   Wisdom 11:24    

                                 

God is Creator

In Room 2 we have been reading the first book in the Bible called Genesis. Now when we look at a beautiful spring flower, a baby lamb, a rainbow or a snowy mountain, we are in awe of the wonders that God created and we say thank you to God for His gifts.

Pekapeka - Native Bat of Aotearoa

This term we have been learning about some of the weird and wonderful creatures that live in New Zealand. Did you know that pekapeka was the first mammal to live here? 

Bats are also the only mammals in the world that can fly.   New Zealand bats are small and can can fit in the palm of your hand but with their wings open they are about 28 centimetres wide. Pekapeka are nocturnal. At night they fly down to the bush floor to eat worms and insects. We made pekapeka models and wrote pekapeka reports. We chose some of the facts we wrote to display on a model. 

The Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross

On Friday the 8th of August Good Shepherd School celebrated the feast day of Mary MacKillop, St Mary of the Cross. We began the day by going to Mass, where all the  new students got candles to welcome them to our school. We had written stories during the week about Mary MacKillop's favourite saying, 

"Never see a need without 

  doing something about it." 

When we got back to school we published our stories and shared them with the class. Next we had fun making Mary MacKillop peg dolls. As a special feast day treat we were all given a sausage to eat which was really appreciated on such a cold day.

Maori Language Week

During Maori Language Week we read 'Taniwha' by Robyn Kahukiwa. We looked at lots of different taniwha books and talked about the Maori patterns we could see. Next we drew our own taniwha. We used vivid pen, crayon and dye. When they were finished we talked about the Maori patterns we could see in our taniwha artworks.

Sheridan's Folk Dancing Fun

To celebrate the end of Term 2, the Sheridan Syndicate invited their families to come and watch a display of folk dancing. We have been developing our folk dance skills all term during fitness and PE. It has been a lot of fun and has kept us warm on cold winter mornings.